This invention relates to a nonlinear optical shield which is particularly suitable for eye protection and protection of photosensors from high intensity light such as that from a laser beam.
The use of lasers has become widespread, especially in military equipment on the battlefield--to the point where there is a need for broadband passive nonlinear shields which permit normal or ambient intensity levels of visible light to pass through them, and which are capable of virtually instantaneously (within several picoseconds or less) blocking high intensity pulsed or continuous wave laser beams in the visible, near infrared and ultraviolet portions of the spectrum, to prevent eye damage and damage to photosensors in the path of the laser beam.